Pakistan, IMF agree to expend BISP budget in FY24

Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have decided to increase the budget of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) during ongoing negotiations for a new loan programme.

In an attempt to provide relief to people living below the poverty line, the IMF delegation and Pakistani authorities are on the same page regarding the increase in the BISP's budget from Rs472 billion to Rs523 billion, sources said.

The IMF delegation also asked the government to enhance the coverage and transparency of the BISP while improving its administrative efficiency. 

In a previous meeting between the lender and borrower, the Fund had pressed the government to increase the budget of cash transfers to pro-poor programmes as much as possible.

According to sources, the government is also mulling to protect beneficiaries of BISP by providing cash on electricity tariff hikes. 

It added that IMF and Islamabad set a target to expand the number of BISP beneficiaries to 20 million, which currently stands at 9.3 million.

The statistics from the finance ministry showed that at least 300,000 families were added to the BISP Kafalat Programme this year, while 900,000 families were registered in the health cash transfer programme.

Moreover, authorities enrolled at least 1.9 million children in the BISP education cash transfer programme.

However, the officials decided to allocate more funds for social security programmes in the next financial year budget.